Not wanting politics crammed into every nook and cranny of daily life is not a "political" view of one kind or another, it's a preference for how I want to consume information and interact with people.
There is such a thing as being able to act and think in ways that aren't political in nature. Maybe not for you, but it absolutely is possible.
Way to completely and totally miss the point. I don't actually think you could've missed the point any harder than you did.
Politics are quite literally life-or-death for many people. War is politics. Access to healthcare is politics. Economic policy that determines whether businesses and careers succeed or fail is politics. Freedom to say what you want, believe or not believe in whatever religion you want, and be who you are without being imprisoned is politics. The people who make the most noise about politics are the people who are literally dying for as long as the rest of society ignores their plight.
If this isn't the case for you, it's because you benefit from the status quo. It is the definition of privilege to be able to "ignore politics". That means you are currently benefitting from politics. Of course you don't want to hear about politics, politics are doing just fine for you. And the comment you were asking to was asking you to reflect on that: if the biggest problem gracing you is hearing other people make noise about circumstances, the least you could do is deal with it. Your problems are trivial if that is what gets you upset. Other people are complaining about things that affect the outcome of their lives and you're complaining about... having to hear it.
That you seem to believe politics exists to solve people's problems is probably the reason you feel it is so important. I'm sorry that you are so profoundly confused.
Oh, you're one of those bootstrappy libertarians, I'm taking it. Everything you've ever done is by your own two merits, right? Nevermind the fact that you take society's roads and use society's technology, which are the results of politics. You drink society's water and eat society's food, which are the results of politics. You enjoy the security of not being invaded by enemy tribes nor your neighbors, which are the results of politics. "Politics" is simply a word describing how humans act in groups. Given that how we act in groups determines the entirety of our lives, there is no separating anything from politics. You seem to have taken my comment as "the government is responsible for solving people's problems", but politics are just as much about dealing with the problems it creates. When politics are going well you can ignore it; when they are going poorly they can end your life so you make a lot of noise about it to get other people to try to care. In either case, though, your life is entirely the result of political forces unless you're living in the jungle completely detached from society.
I live in a society that feeds me and rewards me for work and does a whole host of other things for me. I am grateful for all of it. Many other people are not so well served by society. This is all true. None of that has anything to do with politics.
Politics is a game. It is played with one single objective: to make sure that the people with no political power remain fighting among themselves instead of fighting those with power. If you believe some favored political faction will solve these problems you mention, then it is you who is missing the entire point.
I'm taking you're from the US from the "either team" comment. That is a really elementary understanding of politics. Politics, again, is a word describing how humans behave in groups. Where are roads built? That's a political decision made by groups of humans reaching consensus. What is the budget for the local security force? That's a political decision made by groups of humans reaching consensus. How much money is going to be collected from everyone locally to pay for those roads and security? That's a political decision made by groups of humans reaching consensus. If you're even allowed to participate in the consensus process... that itself is politics! For most of recorded history, decisions were made by the consensus of clergy, nobility and royalty, who coerced the rest of society into supporting their consensus through organized violence. Are you allowed to own property? That is the result of your group reaching consensus saying you're allowed to.
> How the produce of society is distributed and how people are cared for has zero relevance to an article about hacking a text editor,
The article is political. People make noise about Taiwan because an invasion of Taiwan would kill many and oppress more, in other words because it, like all political matters, is something that determines the course of lives of millions. Even if they are not directly affected, noise about politics escalates as a mechanism for people to protect themselves. When you are at the wrong end of a group that outnumbers you trying to kill you, you will require the aid of others. But will others come to your aid if you were not willing to come to their aid? This is how the concept of a "conscience" and "empathy" evolved -- because they give an evolutionary advantage, of providing for your own survival by ensuring collective survival.
Edit: for posterity, the comment I was replying to mentioned a "belief in either team leading you to the promised land", which has been edited out.
You know what's even more important than politics? Water. That doesn't mean I need to read a prologue about water in every HN article reminding me that I require water to survive.
You seem very angry at a stranger on the internet. I think a break from thinking about everything through the lens of politics might be good for you.
People will start talking about water when a water shortage starts impacting their day to day life. For the average western world resident, water is not a problem, yet. But I bet you people in Tehran cares a fuckton about their water running out.
The same with politics. When politicians keep their hands off the society, no one feels pressed to talk about politics. When an authoritarian regime compromises a widely used open source software to conduct espionage, of course people will start talking about politics.
> You know what's even more important than politics? Water.
Access to water is political. If you get water from the city, the building of infrastructure delivering water to your residence is political. Whether or not that water is polluted is political. If you get your water from a well on your own property, your ownership of that land is political. None of that is achieved without group consensus, and group consensus can take all of it away from you. You are able to ignore that fact because all of those political consensuses are currently going in your favor, but the same is not true for everyone, and when it isn't true for them, they can be predicted to make noise about not having access to water for obvious reasons. They will make noise about it everywhere they can because it will be more important than anything else to them, given that it will determine whether they live or die and they need to galvanize communal support in order to reverse their fortunes.
> You seem very angry at a stranger on the internet. I think a break from thinking about everything through the lens of politics might be good for you.
My previous comment was written entirely neutrally, so I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. Incidentally, I happen to live in a prosperous and stable society that I have confidence will remain secure for decades to come, so I have the privilege to ignore politics at my leisure. I am grateful for that opportunity, but I also understand how much of a privilege it is that politics are going well and not actively creating problems for me, so when other people complain about political processes creating problems for them, like the threatened invasion of their country, I listen without complaining.
I took HN as a place for rational discussion, so I made an effort to communicate to you why politics are so important to many, but in the end it seems this discussion is fruitless. If there is any emotion I feel, it is that of disappointment for wasting my time trying to discuss things logically and rather than being met with any kind of reasoned rebuttal, I get a childish dismissal the likes of which I could've gotten on Reddit, which I stopped using for that very reason a decade ago.
But you do see questions about water usage for AI in data centers?
Articles about families living close by, which water bills exploded recently?
On the other hand, you don't see commenters saying that they are indifferent to their access to water, and that they are tired seeing others being engaged in the conversation.
If it's not impacting you, I don't blame you not participating. But I feel (general) you don't get to push down on others because they are discussing important topics (to them).
That might be true in measuring abstract absolutes. But I'd agree that if you don't even know if your population is larger or smaller than it was 40 years ago, then it's perfectly fair to say that you have "no idea" what's going on.
When the US points out faults with what EU is doing, the EU just digs its heels deeper out of spite, instead of self reflecting that maybe the US might be right.
US perspective: EU looks like a great place to expand into once I've reached some critical size threshold. But I can't imagine starting a business there. In the US we have effectively limitless capital, tons of tech talent, and many fewer regulations.
Just about everything I'd want to do in a startup appears illegal or otherwise infeasible in the EU because of the morass of data and AI and energy regulations.
On the other hand, I could never imagine moving to the US. It seems like such a third world country in so many ways. The amount of households that cant afford a sudden $400 expense without borrowing. The childhood poverty rates. The maternal mortality rate. The traffic deaths (en even worse, the pedestrian traffic deaths going in the wrong direction fast), people dying at work, the fact that you managed to get hookworm BACK, the power grid (I love in a small society in Sweden and I have averages 6 minutes of power outages per year), people being functionally illiterate.
I am pretty sure that would not affect me if I moved there, but I am completely dumbfounded that nobody seems to want to change things. One party wants the status quo and one party seems to want to make things worse.
> Just about everything I'd want to do in a startup appears illegal or otherwise infeasible in the EU because of the morass of data and AI and energy regulations.
Sounds like you're doing some shady, disgusting bullshit or you're exaggerating the regulations. I hope it's the latter.
building a simple business in south east asia is drastically easier. there are effectively no privacy laws, no class action lawsuits (a big US problem not EU), no gdpr, energy is cheaper, no punitive labour courts, much looser zoning laws. almost no restrictions on international trade, no withholding taxes, no major issues with transfer pricing, no capital gains taxes, relaxed packaging laws. of course, there are different challenges.
When you go from an open market to EU mode it is insanely stressful having to suddenly deal with these enormous regulatory regimes that simply dont exist anywhere else, and to figure out how to deal with them. this stress is an energy cost, which becomes a capital cost, which makes it much more difficult for small businesses to be created. I also find supranational regulatory regimes difficult to understand, unlike other parts of the world where each country has its own law and thats it. I think its generally a good thing for the people who live there though!
when i am driving around in ASEAN i don't look at my speed. in EU i am anxiously making sure i am 1km/h below the limit to avoid a fine in the mail.
I'm on a high horse because I like that the EU tries to regulate big tech? I wish they went further and actually enforced it. Some of you seem to live in a parallel universe.
Elaborate what's so bad about the EU instead of assuming who I am or how I live. I'm criticizing your ideas, not your person. Make some effort and do the same, "bro". Don't be such a stereotype.
Are they, though? Trump has been trying to wake up Europe since 2016. Russia INVADING a european country was still not enough. You think a spat over greenland will finally do the trick?
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